4.1. General Description of the Bioinformatics Core Facility. The role of the Bioinformatics Core is to facilitate the understanding, analysis, and interpretation of various types of data for RI-INBRE supported investigators at the network institutions. These data types include nucleotide and amino acid sequences, protein and peptide sequences, genes expression arrays, protein domains, and protein structures. The responsibilities of the Core also include website management, storage of digitized data for the RI-INBRE program, management of bioinformatics tools and software, participation in the shared research activities of the NEBC, and coordination of the monthly RI-INBRE seminar series. The Core is led by Dr. Hany Alashwal who coordinates the overall core activities including seminars, workshops and software/hardware acquisition, data storage and processing. The Bioinformatics Core aims to provide expert consultation by developing informatics strategy for analysis of complex data sets for RI-INBRE-supported investigators, and educate the faculty and students regarding 1 bioinformatics approaches for their research in the RI-INBRE thematic areas. Bioinformatics Core activities can be divided into improving education by offering courses, workshops, and seminars, developing and strengthening collaboration between the RI-INBRE investigators, and providing information technology support to the network .